Arizona Air National Guardsmen Indicted for Defrauding Government

Twenty-one people who served in the Arizona Air National Guard have been indicted for allegedly defrauding the federal government of more than $1.4 million.

According to Arizona Attorney General Horne's office, the 21 -- including eight officers and 13 enlisted guardsmen -- falsified military records in order to get "Temporary Duty Disbursements."

That money is meant for military members who are traveling away from home on orders.

The AG's office alleges the guardsmen, who served in the 214th Reconnaissance Group based in Tucson, used fake home addresses that put them outside of Tucson, so they got this money.

Horne announced today that most of the people involved took home more than $100,000 between November 2007 and September 2010.

The AG's office released the name of just one person indicted, a Colonel Davies, who was the former commander of the 214th Reconnaissance Group.

According to Horne's office, Davies is accused of "using his position of authority to circumvent measures that were supposed to prevent unauthorized temporary duty entitlements when military members are neither deployed nor away for training from their home."

"Some of these men and women received benefits in excess of 4 and 5-times their salaries in temporary duty entitlements," Horne says in a statement. "Conversely, our brave men and women overseas were making pennies on the dollar compared to what this group was receiving while still going home to their families each night."

Horne says the 214th Reconnaissance Group has been tasked with flying Predator drones over Afghanistan and Iraq by satellite.

It's interesting that Horne's office is prosecuting the case instead of federal prosecutors.

A press release from Horne says:

The Guardsmen were in a federal active duty status, not on Arizona state orders during the time of the alleged illegal activity. The funds they received through the alleged false pretenses were federal monies, not Arizona state dollars.

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These people who serve our country did something that I totally agree is wrong and they are going to spend time n jail for it. Politicians do things like this (double dipping and pension spiking) and they get re elected. Somehow this just seems so wrong to me.

gotta love it, a guy who has been showing his utter disregard for ethical behavior going after people for unethical behavior...................................what was that old show again??? oh yeah, "it takes a thief"

The only reason Horne is getting involved here is to attempt to divert attention from his own problems and to try to kiss the asses of the republicans to get back in their good graces by 'appearing' tough - that's all you have to do to get a republican vote, appear and tell them you are tough, they will buy it, hook line and sinker, especially if you can manage to work 'god' in there somewhere.

The feds should be handling this, it was Federal Monies that were stolen and these guys were working for the Federal Government when it happened.

Get off the grandstand, Tom. It's not going to help your reputation. AND ... if these criminals ripped off the Feds and not our state, why did you spend Arizona money investigating a crime in which the victim was not in your jurisdiction? Don't we have enough crime here to keep you busy? (For example, look in the mirror.) If you didn't lead the investigation ... if you merely reported this to the Feds and stepped aside (as you should have done), then why are YOU taking credit for it?

I don't get it. According to the story, these people were in AD (federalized) status when the offenses occurred. How Horne gets the authority to prosecute these cases is a bit mysterious. The Air Force IG needs to take a look at this. Is Horne doing this to shift attention away from his own misdeeds?